So my stats are:
18
18
18
18
16
12
we are doing Gestalt characters, level 2, lots of 3.5 stuff allowed and lenient on races/classes ect.
Only stipulation, no synthesist :)
Given these amazing stats and gestalt what are some of your guys epic ideas? Zany, fun, uberpowered, or just weird. I want to hear them!
(btw yes I did roll those...)
Do something insanely MAD to make up for it.
Can you rearrange stats? If so, Monk/Paladin might be perfect.
If not, maybe something weird like a Barbarian/Druid who is completely bestial.
Or hell, Barbarian/Alchemist since you have good Int, go for one of those "Alchemist with lolStr and all the natural attacks" builds but without the silly multiclassing (though Master Chymist is still quite a cool PrC, especially when you still get full progression in one class...).
Monk//Empyreal bloodline Wildblooded Sorcerer. Wis to AC, Wis as casting stat.
Barbarian//Oracle. Lame curse negated by barbarian speed, and you can ragecycle at 5th level.
Gestalt divine and arcane casters and cast all the magic.
I'd avoid summoning and pet classes, since the ridiculously high powered PCs will probably overshadow them.
Yup I can mix the scores around, have 18s in all mental stats for instance, so there is that choice! as for the 16 and 12, I rolled it, believe it or not, I understand the feeling of just making them all 18s but I guess he gets 1 weakness :)
Monk/Paladin, whats great about this combination? I understand it would be unhittable, sell me on it!
Barbarian/druid. That looks interesting! Ill have to check out the druid and see what I can find.
I have thought of the barbarian/alchy, combine it with an orc and you would have a good 30str at level 2! and you could absorb the mental stat drops easier.
Monk/wizard? Why is that?
Monk/Paladin, whats great about this combination? I understand it would be unhittable, sell me on it!
Picture this, if you will.
A stat arrangement of:
Str: 18
Dex: 18
Con: 16
Int: 12
Wis: 18
Cha: 18
At 1st level you have 18 AC (though that may fall behind as you level, consider snagging at least some light armor later on.).
By 2nd you will have saves like thus:
Fort +10, Ref +11, Will +11. For reference my level 5 Monk 5/Fighter 3 has +11/+9/+11. You also have Evasion and at least 2 Feats. And d10 HD and Full BaB as a Monk, so hell you could take an archetype that gives up Flurry and still do aight if you wanted.
Fast forward a few levels, to let's say 10. You went into the Champion of Irori/The Enlightened PrC at level 3 (coming out of Monk, so you're a Monk 3/Paladin 10/Champion of Irori 7).
You now have (not counting stat increases and items):
-Saves as a level 10 Monk with Divine Grace.
-Flurry, Ac Bonus, Stunning Fist DC/Effects, and Unarmed Strike damage of a 10th level Monk
-Can Detect and Smite Chaos as well as evil, with the same effects (doubling your effective range of Smite targets!)
-Can Lay on Hands for 5d6 healing 9 times per day
-Can Smite a total of 5 times a day (instead of 4. Increases to 6 next level.)
-Everything a level 10 Paladin has, which is good in and of itself.
-Have a Ki Pool of 7 (And by spending 2 Ki you can use Smite an extra time or Lay on Hands an extra time. So by spending Ki you can smite a total of 8 times a day.)
-Gain a sort of limited Cleave (basically) when Smiting.
-Gain +3 AC and +3 to Attack rolls when near 2 or more enemies.
Next level you get the ability to make a single Unarmed Strike as a Touch attack and another Ki point (one more Smite or Lay on Hands!)
I want this.
If you have any concept you've ever wanted to play but were worried you couldn't make a character to fit it, this would be a great time to do that. If not, why not utterly nuts in the MAD department with something like monk/sorcerer or monk/wizard? Monk/paladin is also a good one. I've always thought a fighter/bard or barbarian/bard skald type could be really fun to play, or a fighter/wizard, fighter/sorcerer could be fun to try to make work with those crazy stats.
@Rynjin That sounds quite intriguing! I will definitely look deeper into that, I figured that the champion of iori was not very strong, but I might have to reevaluate that. I will probably switch out flurry for something else, as we already have an unarmed monk/fighter. Will look further!
Why the monk/empherial sorcerer? I got nice stats across, I dont need to streamline.
Id love to do a TWF axe wielding viking something like Olaf! I figure wield 2 axes, be able to throw them if needed, attack fast (twf, haste, anything else?), do massive damage when low health (I figure raging brutality will be the closest I could get) and some sort of one hit BOOM! effect. I imagine vital strike/furious finish or criticals would do there.
Even if I have to streamline this or take parts of it out, any ideas on how to build that?
The Champion of Irori is fairly lackluster in normal circumstances because you basically become a mediocre Monk and a Mediocre Paladin melded into one package.
However, with Gestalt, you effectively become a Monk plus an even better Paladin, without really giving up anything significant.
As for Flurry-less Monk, your options are really just Master of Many Styles (quick access to Dragon Style/Ferocity for damage is good, yeah), Sensei (if you wanted some very limited buff abilities), or Tetori (Grapple EVERYTHING).
Players in my game are doing:
Paladin (PF) / Crusader (Book of 9 Swords) (getting hit means nothing to this character)
Rogue (PF) / Swordsage (Book of 9 Swords) (stealth, stealth, STEALTH)
Fighter / Ranger (Archer) (new character to replace dead one)
Druid / ? (This guy didn't plan his build, just decimates stuff)
Fighter / Magus (FEATS! And spells.)
Next game, run by Fighter / Ranger player, will also be Gestalt. I've thought about running a Rogue / Malefactor, or an Armored Mage Fighter (Complete Mage) / Sorcerer (Celestial Empyreal) / Swordsage. Run Mithral Mountain Pattern with Battle Caster feat (Complete Arcane), or just a Mithral Shirt if he doesn't approve that as "light" armor, get Wisdom to AC, maneuvers, 3/4 BAB, spells, and wings.
Well flurry dosent really matter, its attacking unarmed that I dont really care to do.
first you need 5 skill ranks to get into the class, so cant go in at third :)
saying that, there is no real benefit of 5th over 4th, so I might be able to take a dip there of something else (no idea what right now)
Since I plan on going with a weapon, it limits a bit of the usefulness of champion of iori, bot not all of it. Detect/smite chaos, ki pool, valiant stand and shield the weak are all still very useful. Martial artist will only really give me +1 AC and sweeping smite and lvl 7+ would be useless so I should only go up to 4-6. After that back to dip levels!
Paladin side will be the main focus, and Ill have to look further into that!
Still got to look at the archetypes to see what, if anything will really benefit me before that.
Actually I can really see the merits of a barbarian sorcerer. Sorcerers often get bloodline powers and such that would really benefit a martial character but they are stuck with a slow BAB, low hps and crap AC. Mixing the two would be a good idea, except you couldnt cast spells while raging ;) A neat idea would be to cast transform then start raging. Ill have to re-read up cartmanbecks guide to the bloodlines and see what I can get there :)
Ohhh. In that case, why not take Weapon Adept or something?
Remember, Monks CAN flurry with weapons (Monk weapons).
Bonus points because Weapon Adept has the lulziest level 17 ability ever.
"Choose your Initiative roll. You can make it any number from 1 to 20. Come on, you will totally pick a number other than 20 sometimes, right? Right?"
"...Right?"
Riiight... rolls eyes...
for me weapon adept would only really trade out evasion for weapon focus and perfect strike, and perfect strike would only benefit a quarterstaff. Might be worth it but I think evasion would be worth more.
A monk of the sacred mountain would gain moar AC and toughness, which could be good.
A hungry ghost monk could steal ki to get more smites and gain punishing kick, note that punishing kick dosent actually have to be a kick.
A Flowing monk could also have good synergy, tripping foes, protecting allies, reducing damage by half and flowing dodge would stack real well with valiant stand.
A master of many styles could gain dragon style to charge unhindered or kirin style to gain swift action knowledge checks that would work well with pursuit of knowledge. Any other good style that I missed aside from crane as I dont want to fight defensively?
Another fun one i've done is sensei/gunslinger, of course you got more 18's than you need for that one.
Monk/wizard? Why is that?
Because your monk abilities would negate most (if not all) of the wizard shortcomings such as Lack of Melee efficiency, AC, etc. YOu'd be a Xiaolin Monk with fireballs. I'd also recommend the dimensional dervish line of feats for extra fun.
Na its not so much that I can't figure out what to do so much as I am out of ideas that look fun. I am also wondering what other people would do with the stats.
Truth be told I have already come up with 5 ideas, but each one had something to similar to someone elses character, a problem I am noticing with gestalt and largeish groups.
Wizard (Transmutation - Enhancement subschool) 20 / Barbarian 20
You have the stats for it.
Anything but Druid. Try Bard Rogue.
It's a good thing synthesists are banned; your character might become overpowered.
Human with racial heritage Orc, Go Barbarian/Witch Doctor.
I would say Sorcerer/Champion (I think that is the 3rd class in BoNS) so you would get spells and one of the most ridiculous fighter variants ever. Styles I would say Diamond Mind and Iron Heart for some of the coolest abilities. Grant most of the styles had some great stuff in them.
Invulnerable barbarian/ Martial Artist Monk. The DR from barbarian would solve any issues one might have with the relatively low AC, and after level 5, Monk would allow you immunity to fatigue. That means that you can rage cycle whenever you want. Once per rage powers would suddenly be once per turn if you wished.
Plus, you could make a high strength build, boost it with rage, and smash everything with flurry of blows. You qualify as a 4th level fighter, so you can also add weapon specialization for more damage on each hit. The fact that you can ignore DR with a swift action after level 4 means you would never have to deal with golfbagging your weapons or about your unarmed hits facing such problems, depending on whichever style you choose. This will save you money and trouble during the levels before you can afford weapons with sufficient enhancement bonus to cancel out material DR.
Broken record time:
paladin/ ninja, the ultimate stealth tank! Swift self heals, unparalleled saves, excellent weapon selection, skills galore, vanish + smite + channel smite + SA = BBEG bane.
A master of many styles could gain dragon style to charge unhindered or kirin style to gain swift action knowledge checks that would work well with pursuit of knowledge. Any other good style that I missed aside from crane as I dont want to fight defensively?
Snaaaaaake.
I love Snake. Snake + Dragon is best.
I'm currently playing a Pally/Alchy gestalt (new class name: Chemplar) in an email game, and it's AWESOME.
All good saves.
Awesome self-buffing, including shield, enlarge person, cures on top of Lay on Hands, you can take the Spontaneous Healing discovery for more.
Ranged and melee dominance.
Immunity or near immunity to disease, poison.
Tons of skills with 6+ skill points/lvl.
I ended up taking Ragechemist archetype to avoid poison use/LG conflict, and now I'm a righteous raging paladin.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
With that much to play with, you don't need to optimize, do something fun, like Cleric/Rogue!
3/4 BAB, but
full saves
full skill-points
full spell-casting in armor
full sneak-attack
Rogue Talents,
Channeling
Domains and domain powers
Lots of fun!
Edit: You've got to love it that in an *80* point-buy gestalt game, still the synthesist isn't allowed. That's awesome.
Lol I go to sleep for a few hours and the thread takes off :)
The rest of the party is somewhere around 40-45, I just rolled exceptonally high :) the synth got banned when someone was thinking of going synth/monk and paly to be effectivly untouchable.
Liking a lot of the suggestions so far but I am wondering if someone could come up with something to make a decent Olaf (from LoL).
I could see a dwarven viking/paladin having insane high saves...
Steel soul/glory of old: +5
Superstition (at lv 5) +2
Divine grace +3
5th level paly +4,+1,+4
Stats +5,+4,+3
For a grand total of 19, 15, 17 (21 fort while raging) at lvl 5!
With that much to play with, you don't need to optimize, do something fun, like Cleric/Rogue!
3/4 BAB, but
full saves
full skill-points
full spell-casting in armor
full sneak-attack
Rogue Talents,
Channeling
Domains and domain powersLots of fun!
Edit: You've got to love it that in an *80* point-buy gestalt game, still the synthesist isn't allowed. That's awesome.
This is actually one of my favorite gestalts if you have the stats to pull it off! Combat expt + imp feint + channel smite = 20d6 + weapon dmg! Check please...
How about a magus/3.5 swashbuckler?
Oh holy crap i had a sweet idea idea for using that array. Go for dex magus but gestalt 3.5 beguiler. You will eventually be able to pick that arcana that lets you spellstrike/combat a different spell list and dominate creatures by striking them.
I personally am finding that martial/Bard and martial/Inquisitor are very good combinations. Both combos bring a nice amount of skills and spellcasting to add to the character while still letting it retain a very martial feel. In my experience, a martial/caster gestalt usually ends up eventually being a caster with more HP and a melee option once he's out of spells.
|
This is funny. I'm actually playing in a Gestalt game where everyone starts with an 18 in all their stats before racial mods (familiars/animal companions/eidolons/ect as well). The only restriction is that we have to be martial/spellcaster mixes (with spellcaster defined as anything that gets 6th level spells). It's absolutely crazy fun.
Anything that is a Charisma caster combo'd with Paladin is just insane. I get my main casting stat to my saves.
Actually a magus + any other spell casting class that has decent offensive and buff spells becomes sickening around 6th level when you can take the arcana....there are good cleric buffs or wizard buffs to make it really strong...and wizard has the upside of int based.
do keep in mind those other spells dont ignore armor.
Goblin Feral Gnasher Barbarian / Martial Artist Monk
Bite is the only natural attack, so 1.5 str and 3:1 power attack.
Feral combat training to flurry and dragon style the bites.
HP and saves and eat everything to death.
Tiefling Hexcrafter Magus/ MoMS Qingong Monk
Arcane Pool to up the AoMF to +10. Q for barkskin. Tail for rods.
Hex strike plus stunning fist plus curse spells means one hit to shut down any enemy.
Dip dual curse oracle one level to add another type of misfortuning.
Empyreal Sorc 10 / Cleric 9 / Monk 2 / Preacher Inquisitor 9 / MT 10
(Change point buy for more Wis)
...
Prophet?
So, whats everybody else in your group going to run? What level of char op does your DM expect? Its really easy to just go nuts with gestalt, so might wanna gauge yourself to the rest of the group if they aren't the best at building characters....
Who am I kidding? Pull out those 3.5 books if they are allowed. Go wizard/incantrix/archmage//DMM cleric/radiant servant of pelor/contemplative.